Contents

Summary

Peter Pan is the little boy who never grew up. He leads a group of other children known as The Lost Boys, on the mythical island of Neverland. In Peter and Wendy, he convinces Wendy and her brothers to come away with him to Neverland, so they can have adventures and never have to grow up, devastating their loving parents.

Adaptations

Peter Pan is a popular character and story, with many stage, screen, novel and comic adaptations. A wiki list of the adaptations can be found here.

J. M. Barrie canon

The character was first introduced in "The Little White Bird" in 1902, then a stage play in 1904 as Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. The expanded novelisation of the stage play was released in 1911 as Peter and Wendy, then Peter Pan and Wendy, and then finally abbreviated to Peter Pan. The relevant chapters of "The Little White Bird" were extracted and republished as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.

Film

It was first filmed as a silent film in 1924, but is perhaps best known for the animated film by Disney in 1953, Walt Disney's Peter Pan. There have been other adaptations, including a Disney sequel in 2002 called Return to Neverland, a live action sequel in 1991 called Hook, and a live action film in 2003 called Peter Pan.

Comics

While there have been a number of comic book representations of Peter Pan, one of the most controversial is the graphic novel Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, which features Wendy Darling alongside Alice from Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy Gale from Wizard of Oz. The three lost girls share stories of their sexual adventures with each other, which is why the book is so controversial, given the young ages of the girls.

Television

There are also a few television adaptions as well, including Syfy's Neverland two-part miniseries.

In the show Once Upon a Time, several main Peter Pan characters appear in the series, first in the second season as well as more prominently in Season 3 while the main characters of the series are on Neverland. Captain Hook is a main character since Season 2 and revealed that Rumplestiltskin is the "Crocodile", and took Killian's hand. Wendy Darling and her brothers first appeared in an S2 episode, while Peter Pan and the lost boys are first seen in Season 3. In this version, Pan is the antagonist and Tinkerbell is not with him; although she does now live on Neverland and no longer has any magic. Wendy, Michael, and John also appeared again in S3 - Wendy as a prisoner of Pan and Michael and John (now older) working for him in order to keep Wendy alive. Later in the season Pan is revealed to be Rumplestiltskin's father, Malcolm, who made was turned into a boy (aka Peter Pan) with the help of the Shadow from Neverland.

Theatre

Many new plays and musicals about Peter Pan have been developed all over the world using both Barrie's canon and new material. Most recently, a prequel play titled Peter and the Starcatcher (based on the novel Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson) opened on Broadway in 2011.